Background Information on Witnesses for Fifth Radicalization Hearing

June 20, 2012 4:00 AM

“The American Muslim Response to Hearings on Radicalization within their Community”

June 20, 2012

Background Information on Witnesses

Mr. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D.

President and Founder, American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD)

Founded AIFD in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the United States to provide an American Muslim voice advocating for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, and the separation of mosque and state

Former Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy and served 11 years as a medical officer, where among other accomplishments he served as Medical Department Head aboard the USS El Paso during Operation Restore Hope in Somalia

Recipient of the Meritorious Service Medal and the 2007 Director’s Community Leadership Award by the Phoenix office of the FBI

Physician practicing in Phoenix, AZ

Testified at first radicalization hearing on March 10, 2011

Ms. Asra Nomani

Former Wall Street Journal reporter and current journalism lecturer at Georgetown University

Author of Standing Alone: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam and Milestones for a Spiritual Jihad: Toward an Islam of Grace

Co-director of the Pearl Project, an investigation into the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl

Subject of a PBS documentary, The Mosque in Morgantown

Instructor at Islamic culture seminars for the Federal government, including the U.S. military

Dr. Qanta A. A. Ahmed, M.D.

Expert and prolific writer on political and religious issues relating to Islam

Author of "In the Land of Invisible Women," a personal memoir of living and working as a western Muslim woman in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Recognized expert in health issues pertaining to the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, her work relating to Hajj medicine appearing in The Lancet and other leading publications

Board-certified physician, practicing medicine and teaching at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, NY, and at the State University of New York in Stony Brook

Ms. Faiza Patel

Co-Director, Liberty and National Security Program, Brennan Center for Justice